Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: Ephemeria on August 13, 2011, 12:50:41 PM
-
Just what kind of irons and solder I should use to wire the electronics in a guitar. Also what's the best way to apply/prepare the solder to the pots, toggle, output jack, etc.
-
Tin your leads. Melt a bit of solder onto the bare wire ends, that is.
The backs of pots can be tricky. Scuffing the area you want to solder to with some sandpaper and getting a blob melted on there before attaching your pretinned wires is well known trick.
Heat the component, not the solder and do it as quickly as possible.
Don't breathe heavily on anything and turn the ceiling fan off to avoid cold solder joints. The solder needs to cool at it's own pace. Cold solder joints are dull instead of shiny and are not mechanically or electrically sound.
Invest in some alligator clips or some other appropriate small metal clip to hold things together for you as you solder.
30 watt "pen" iron for pots, caps, jacks, etc. Larger wattage guns can be used for speakers as they are fast, but never near pickups as the field those windings give off can demagnetize pickups or so I've been told. Not that you'd want to use such an overpowered awkward tool for inside the control cavity.
-
Make a little template of the holes and then you can do all the soldering away from the guitar. Loose solder does bad things to a guitars finish :D
-
There's a thread on this subject going on on TGP at the moment.http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=941029
-
Solder flows towards heat!!
Having solder on the tip of your iron makes it easier and quicker to transfer heat to the back of a pot etc
Be careful not to overheat components -you can easily damage them
Experiment with different brands of solder - not all solders are equal
It can be worth owning some high silver content solder
Lead free solder is often useless and tricky to work with
+1 to tone monekeys making a card or plywood template to hold the components away from the guitar to solder them
Do have a soldering iron stand
Tape paper, card or even a towel around the cavity where you are soldering as solder can "spit" and spoil finishes
-
Leaded solder is much easier to work with than lead-free solder, as it has a lower melting temperature when compared with lead-free solder (typically 180 degC versus 220-230 degC).
I've looked into using the lead-free solder and if you have to use it (you don't), you will need to have a 50W temperature controlled iron, although if you are doing a lot of soldering (I do), then I would advise having one of these anyway.
Also the various formulations of lead-free solder behave very differently.
The cheaper lead-free solder eg this from Maplin is hopeless. Don't use this.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/lead-free-solder-2819?ordercode=N50AW
The lead-free silver solder is much better. Oddly the Rapid Electronics own brand lead-free silver solder, which on the face of it has the identical formulation to the Maplin lead-free silver solder, is much easier to work with.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/lead-free-silver-solder-34965
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Lead-free-solder-Rapid/66160
Regardless, as you are not manufacturing for sale in the EU, you can use leaded solder with is still available from Rapid electronics.
The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030
-
I found this interesting when doing my guitar over.
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnplanetz#p/u/25/kTooyaxdDV0
Wiring Up Guitar Electronics 1 - 5
-
Good advise from jpf.
He's had more tined ends that Jordan's had bell ends
-
I've always struggled with the back of pots, but I'm getting there now - i scratch the hell out of them with a screwdriver, and then make sure that I get them really hot and get loads of shinny solder on there.
And yes - tin your wires and iron tips!
-
- Keep your tip clean. Good advice for all tips to be fair.
- Get a stand and a sponge (for the above).
- Use decent leaded solder. Don't mess with that unleaded shitee.
- Get a solder sucker for when you f**k it up. Nothing worse than coming accross a humongous blob of solder with loads of cut wires sticking out of it.
-
Even though I have done a lot of soldering in my life I am enjoying this thread.
Today I went to Rapid Electronics like Frank at JPFamps suggested and got some of the solder that he recommended.
I am looking forward to testing it out and sharing my thoughts with you all
The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030
Please if anyone has some good input about soldering and tools & techniques , pics or video links post them on this thread .
I will sift through it all and try to combine the best bits to come up with a post that we can have as a sticky topic that we can all enjoy/benefit from....
I may even post some pics or make a video clip - or will be happy if anyone else has some
-
The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030
What does the "SWG" mean (18SWG, 22SWG, 26SWG)? I'm guessing some sort of weight/thickness measurement?
And which of the three would you guys recommend for general, mainly guitar, soldering duties?
Many thanks :D
-
The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030
What does the "SWG" mean (18SWG, 22SWG, 26SWG)? I'm guessing some sort of weight/thickness measurement?
And which of the three would you guys recommend for general, mainly guitar, soldering duties?
Many thanks :D
SWG - standard wire gauge
Bigger number = smaller diameter
SWG18=1.2mm ideal all round solder for guitars
swg22=0.71mm good for fine work on guitars
swg26 =0.45mm pretty small - good for circuit board soldering
-
Thanks for that :D
-
Some questions:
How many Watts do I need?
Which temperature for what application?
Should I get an iron with a pointy tip or one with a beveled (do you know what I mean?)?
-
Some questions:
How many Watts do I need?
Which temperature for what application?
Should I get an iron with a pointy tip or one with a beveled (do you know what I mean?)?
Good questions - I think a minimum of 25 watts - the antex XS 25w iron is a good (and cheap) starting point
Different solders melt at different temperatures - the one JPFamps listed with the 2% silver melts easily and has a short transition - so it hardens quickly when you remove the heat - makes it easier to get things soldered without burning fingers or shaky hands ruining your tidy work.
Lead free solder has a higher melting temperature than the old fashioned leaded stuff and this can cause extra problems for some people with their irons struggling to get enough heat.
Different soldering applications need different tip sizes on an iron - due to how they transfer heat
A long pointy tip is often good for circuit boards as it doesn't flood the area with heat, but this will struggle in getting the back of a pot hot enough. A broad chisel tip will have an easier time in transferring heat to the back of a pot.
I sometimes have two irons on when I solder - na broad tip for the backs of pots and a thinner pointy one for soldering to pot tags and switches
-
The better soldering irons will have a variety of different tips available, which can easily be swapped..
I generally use a spade tip (Weller PTCC7), and this covers most of what I do. For some fine PCB work I have a smaller spade tip and a pointy tip.
25W would be the minimum I would recommend, especially if you are soldering to the back of pots.
One general misconception is that too powerful an iron is dangerous to the work piece. In fact, the opposite is true; an under powered iron is more likely to damage the work than a more powerful iron.
A 50W iron will not get any hotter than a 25W iron, but is able to deliver heat more quickly to the solder joint.
To get a good solder joint, you need to heat the work to temperature where the solder will melt onto it, ie the work needs to be heated to a temperature greater than the melting point of the solder (which is one of the reasons leaded solder is easier to work with).
You need to heat the work as quickly as possible to minimize the total heat being conducted from the solder joint into the work. An underpowered iron will take longer to heat the work, and thus potentially can cause harm to components in what you are soldering.
Re temperature, I use 370degC for virtually all soldering work, except when confronted with the higher temp lead free solder when I use 425degC.